In tandem with the rising politicization of schools and colleges, the number of college students with serious mental health problems is rapidly growing. Correlation does not prove causation, of course, but we must ask what could account for statistics like this, from a report by Steven Ross Johnson in Modern Healthcare: 

….the number of college students seeking help for behavioral health issues [is] rising in recent years. From 2010 to 2015, counseling center utilizations increased by an average of up to 40%, according to a 2017 report by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Pennsylvania State University.

Aside from the overall increase in cases, the types of psychological and emotional conditions college students are seeking help for have become more serious.

Many schools report a rise in the number of students visiting counseling services seeking help for depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders and sexual assault—issues that often require more comprehensive care than many college counseling services are equipped to handle.

What is notable is that the sources and types of problems being encountered are changing:

"Most of us were historically trained to deal with kids who have just hit a rough spot—they just had a breakup, or they fail their first class, or they were exposed to things for the first time that they feel has challenged their values," said Barbara Thomas, director of the counseling and psychological services department at the University of San Francisco. "But that's a waning population." (snip)

…the majority of students seeking behavioral healthcare on college campuses these days have long-standing histories of mental health issues that they were dealing with before they arrived on campus. The pressures brought on by being away from home for the first time as well as the overall workload can stress any student, but for those with underlying mental health issues, those same pressures can aggravate their conditions to the point that a college counseling office can be overwhelmed. 

Our children are losing their minds in rising numbers. This seems like a crisis to me. Incidents of mass murder by psychopathic young adults, have grabbed a lot of attention, but guns (and bombs) have less to do with it than whatever poisons are driving our young snowflakes to melt in greater numbers.

Illustration via Pixabay